præmunire

Noun

praemunire (plural praemunires)

1. (historical) The offence in English law of bringing suit in or obeying a foreign (especially papal) court or authority, thus challenging the supremacy of the Crown. The offence was created by the Statute of Praemunire 1393 (16 Richard II, chapter 5), and abolished by the Criminal Law Act 1967 (chapter 58).
   • Lord Cardinall, the Kings further pleaſure is, / Becauſe all thoſe things you haue done of late / By your power Legatiue within this Kingdome, / Fall into' th' compaſſe of a Premunire; / That therefore ſuch a Writ be ſued againſt you, / To forfeit all your Goods, Lands, Tenements, / Caſtles, and...1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
2. The writ charging a person with this offence, the writ of praemunire facias.
   • Premunire lies against an ecclesiastical Judge. Where a cause originally belongs to the cognizance of the ecclesiastical Court, although all circumstances being disclosed the cognizance belongs to the King's temporal Court; yet, if the suit is prosecuted there in the same nature as the cognizance...1826, Edward Coke, John Henry Thomas, John Farquhar Fraser, “Premunire”, in The Reports of Sir Edward Coke, Knt., part I, page 244; reprinted as Clark, N.J.: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 2008, →ISBN
3. Any of a number of criminal offences incurring similar penalties to the original offence of praemunire.
   • [T]he term ‘Præmunire’ […] has subsequently, to use the language of Mr. Serjeant Hawkins (Pleas of the Crown, b. 1, c. 19), ‘been applied to other heinous crimes, for the most part having relation to the offences originally coming under the notion of præmunire, but in some instances not at all.’...1846, The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: Habenaria–Zingiber, volume II, London: Charles Knight, →OCLC, page 163
4. (figuratively) Crime, offence, wrongdoing.
   • O Pride, of all heaven-relapsing praemunires the most fearful – thou that ere this had disparadised our first parent, Adam, and unrighteoused the very angels –, how shall I arm mine elocution to break through the ranks of thy hilly stumbling blocks?1593, Thomas Nashe, Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem; republished as Stanley Wells, editor, Thomas Nashe: Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Devil, Summer’s Last Will and Testament, the Terrors of...
5. The penalty for this offence.
   • Sir, this should teach us to be as tender, zealous and careful to assert Christ and his church, their privileges and rights, and to forewarn all lest they endanger their souls by encroaching thereon, and lest their omissions and remissness bring eternal premunires upon them, let all know that the...1809, William Guthrie, An Historical Account of the Lives and Characters of Mr. William Guthrie […], Kilmarnock: Joseph Graham, & Co., →OCLC, page 64
6. (figuratively) A difficulty or predicament.
   • This attendance increased his uneasiness to such a degree, that he […] swore, that if once he was clear of this scrape, he would not bring himself into such a premunire again for the whole kingdom of France.1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC

See all 7 meanings of praemunire